Dorset Folkore 5-The Chesil Beach mermaid

FOR YOUR DAILY DOSE OF DORSET ENTER YOUR EMAIL IN THE BOX ON THE RIGHT!

Dorset's long coastline and an ancient seafaring tradition makes it inevitable that tall tales of a fishy variety often circulated amongst the locals.
One of these relate that in 1757  the people of Portland spotted what they took to be a mermaid. The creature was eventually washed up at West Bexington and named Veasta.
Unfortunately for local fantasists she was even less of a looker than the local maids; being 13 ft long with a head that was a cross between a man and a hog and possessed of a  set of ninety six pearly gnashers. To top things off she had fins that resembled hands...not the sort of things to have running through your hair.
An even earlier sighting from Portland described a creature resembling a cock appearing from the sea. It posessed a great crest on its head, a red beard and legs half a yard long. After having a good old crow it finally disappeared from whence it came...still, as they say,  its all the same with a bit of batter on.

Dorset Folklore 2-The Woodwose

Should you meet a big, hairy bloke shambling down a Dorset lane, more likely than not he is just a Real Ale bore.

Should you be in the vicinity of Yellowham Woods, near the county town of Dorchester and he picks up your wife and carries her off, then maybe you've met a Woodwose.

The Woodwose is Dorset's very own version of Bigfoot and like Bigfoot, blurry sightings continue to this day. 

The first part of his name is obvious while 'wose' is probably Old English for 'being'.

Woods have always been places of mystery so it's no surprise that legends of hirsute wild men stretch back thousands of years. The Woodwose also had an unfortunate tendency to impregnate the village girls he stole, making him the perfect scapegoat for that night of hanky panky.

The legend of wild men appear across Europe. Here on a German coin of 1629